Downfall

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER delivers a versatile 1080p and 1440p experience in Downfall, with 4K reserved for lower presets. The measured data shows that the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience across all resolutions, providing a substantial framerate uplift over High while maintaining playable minimums. At 1920x1080, Medium produces an average of 172 FPS with a minimum of 146 FPS, which is 31 FPS higher than High and only 38 FPS below Low. At 2560x1440, Medium averages 123 FPS with a 105 FPS minimum, still comfortably above High’s 101 FPS average. Even at 3840x2160, Medium achieves 77 FPS with a 65 FPS minimum, making it the only preset at that resolution that balances fluidity with visual quality, as High dips to 63 FPS and Ultra falls to 39 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

The Medium preset is the clear choice for this combination across all three tested resolutions. At 1080p, the average framerate of 172 FPS is more than sufficient for high-refresh-rate displays, and the 146 FPS minimum ensures consistency during intense scenes. The jump from Medium to High costs 31 FPS at 1080p, a 22% performance hit that may not justify the visual uplift in a horror title where smooth motion is critical. At 1440p, Medium’s 123 FPS average and 105 FPS minimum are strong, while High drops to 101 FPS, which is still playable but leaves less headroom for demanding sequences. At 4K, Medium is the only preset that maintains an average above 60 FPS, with 77 FPS, while High falls to 63 FPS and Ultra to 39 FPS, making Medium the only viable option for a consistent experience at that resolution.

Low settings provide the maximum framerate, with 210 FPS at 1080p, 150 FPS at 1440p, and 94 FPS at 4K, but the visual degradation in a horror game—where atmosphere and lighting are paramount—makes this a poor trade-off. Ultra, conversely, offers the highest visual fidelity but at severe performance costs: 88 FPS at 1080p, 63 FPS at 1440p, and 39 FPS at 4K. The latter two are below the 60 FPS threshold that most players consider playable. Therefore, Medium represents the sweet spot, delivering a 172 FPS average at 1080p, 123 FPS at 1440p, and 77 FPS at 4K, all with respectable minimums.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 7 5800X3D and RTX 2070 SUPER ranks 2157th out of 3716 tested combos in Downfall. This places it in the 42nd percentile of all combinations, indicating that while it is not a top-tier setup, it is far from the bottom of the pack. The rank reflects a balance between the CPU’s strong multi-threaded performance and the GPU’s mid-range capabilities. The CPU’s average benchmark score of 27896 places it in the 80th percentile of all CPUs, while the GPU’s average score of 20282 places it in the 65th percentile of all GPUs. This disparity suggests that the GPU is the limiting factor in most scenarios, which is consistent with the measured framerates showing a more significant drop when settings are increased than when resolution is scaled.

Compared to its nearest CPU rivals, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is essentially tied with the AMD Ryzen 7 6800U (0% delta) and the Intel Core i9-10900K (0.1% delta), while slightly ahead of the Intel Core i5-12600KF (0.3% delta). This indicates that the CPU provides a solid foundation for gaming, but it is not a differentiator in this specific title. On the GPU side, the RTX 2070 SUPER is 1% behind the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M, 1.2% behind the RTX 3070 Mobile, 1.3% behind the Intel Arc B570, and 1.5% behind the Intel Arc A750. These small deltas show that the GPU is competitive with its immediate peers, but the overall combo rank is dragged down by the GPU’s relative position in the broader market.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is adequate for Downfall at 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K with Ultra settings, the 39 FPS average suggests that both memory capacity and bandwidth are strained. The GPU’s base clock of 1605 MHz and boost clock of 1770 MHz are modest by modern standards, but they are sufficient to drive the measured framerates when paired with the CPU’s cache-heavy design. The GPU’s 2560 shading units and 64 ROPs handle the game’s rendering load, with a pixel rate of 113.3 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 283.2 GTexel/s.

The data shows that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher settings. At 1080p, dropping from Low to Ultra reduces the average framerate from 210 FPS to 88 FPS, a 58% decrease. At 1440p, the same settings drop yields a 58% decrease as well (150 to 63 FPS), and at 4K, the drop is 59% (94 to 39 FPS). This consistency across resolutions indicates that the GPU’s compute and memory resources are being saturated as settings increase, rather than the CPU becoming a limiting factor. The GPU’s benchmark scores support this, with a Passmark G3D score of 18169 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1651, both of which are mid-range figures.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for 4K gaming with this combo?

A: Medium is the only preset that maintains an average framerate above 60 FPS at 3840x2160, achieving 77 FPS with a minimum of 65 FPS. High drops to 63 FPS, while Ultra falls to 39 FPS, making Medium the only viable choice for smooth 4K play.

Q: How does the combo rank compared to other tested systems?

A: The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D and RTX 2070 SUPER combination ranks 2157th out of 3716 tested combos in Downfall, placing it in the lower-middle tier of all tested configurations.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more important in this title?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the limiting factor. The GPU ranks in the 65th percentile of all GPUs, while the CPU ranks in the 80th percentile of all CPUs. The framerate drops significantly when settings are increased, but less so when resolution is raised, which is typical of a GPU-bound scenario.

Q: What is the average framerate at 1440p on High settings?

A: The measured average framerate at 2560x1440 with High settings is 101 FPS, with no minimum or maximum data recorded for this configuration.

Q: How much faster is Low compared to Ultra at 1080p?

A: Low settings produce an average of 210 FPS, while Ultra produces 88 FPS. This represents a 122 FPS difference, meaning Low is 139% faster than Ultra at 1920x1080.

Q: Does the CPU’s 3D V-Cache provide any measurable benefit in this game?

A: The CPU’s large 96 MB shared L3 cache is part of its design, but the measured data does not isolate cache effects. The CPU’s average benchmark score of 27896 and its 80th percentile ranking suggest it performs well, but the GPU’s lower percentile ranking indicates it is the more significant constraint on framerates.

Resolution Scaling

The framerate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a GPU-bound workload. At High settings, the average framerate drops from 141 FPS at 1920x1080 to 101 FPS at 2560x1440, a 28% decrease, and then to 63 FPS at 3840x2160, a further 38% decrease. This progressive decline is consistent with increased pixel count demanding more GPU throughput. At Low settings, the drop is less severe in percentage terms: 210 FPS at 1080p, 150 FPS at 1440p (a 29% decrease), and 94 FPS at 4K (a 37% decrease). The fact that the percentage drop is similar between Low and High settings suggests that the GPU is the limiting factor across all settings, as the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU at all resolutions.

At Medium settings, the framerate drops from 172 FPS at 1080p to 123 FPS at 1440p (a 28% decrease) and then to 77 FPS at 4K (a 37% decrease). Ultra settings show the most dramatic drop: 88 FPS at 1080p, 63 FPS at 1440p (a 28% decrease), and 39 FPS at 4K (a 38% decrease). The consistency of the 28-29% drop from 1080p to 1440p and the 37-38% drop from 1440p to 4K across all presets indicates that resolution scaling is purely a function of pixel rendering load. The 4K resolution has 4 times the pixels of 1080p, but the framerate does not scale linearly, suggesting that other bottlenecks, such as memory bandwidth, come into play at higher resolutions. The GPU’s 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth and 8 GB of VRAM are likely strained at 4K, particularly at higher settings.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D has 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 4.50 GHz. It features a 96 MB shared L3 cache, which is a unique design aspect of this processor. The CPU’s benchmark scores are strong: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 14317, a single-core score of 1452, and a Geekbench multi-core score of 11765. Its 3DMark 16-thread score of 7299 and max-thread score of 7285 indicate consistent multi-threaded performance. The CPU’s Passmark single-thread score of 3234 and multi-thread score of 28309 place it well above average, with an overall percentile rank of 80%.

In Downfall, the CPU’s role appears to be secondary to the GPU. The measured framerates show that when the resolution is increased, the performance drop is substantial, which is characteristic of GPU-bound rendering. However, the CPU’s high single-thread performance, evidenced by a Geekbench single-core score of 2017 and a 3DMark single-thread score of 884, ensures that the game’s core logic and physics are handled without bottlenecking the GPU. The CPU’s nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i9-10900K, are within 0.1% of its average score, indicating that the 5800X3D is not a standout performer in this title, but it is more than capable of supporting the RTX 2070 SUPER. The 105W TDP and 7nm process node suggest efficient operation, but these factors do not directly impact measured framerates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers the highest average framerate at 210 FPS, with no minimum or maximum recorded. Medium reduces this to 172 FPS, with a minimum of 146 FPS and a maximum of 198 FPS. High settings yield 141 FPS, while Ultra drops to 88 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 122 FPS, indicating that the GPU’s rendering load increases significantly with each preset tier. At 2560x1440, Low averages 150 FPS, Medium 123 FPS (with a 105 FPS minimum and 141 FPS maximum), High 101 FPS, and Ultra 63 FPS. The pattern is consistent, with Medium providing a 22 FPS advantage over High and a 27 FPS deficit from Low.

At 3840x2160, the framerates are substantially lower. Low averages 94 FPS, Medium 77 FPS (with a 65 FPS minimum and 88 FPS maximum), High 63 FPS, and Ultra 39 FPS. At this resolution, even the Low preset cannot maintain a 100+ FPS average, and the Ultra preset falls below 40 FPS, making it largely unplayable. The Medium preset at 4K offers the best balance, with a 77 FPS average that is 14 FPS higher than High and 17 FPS lower than Low. The minimum framerate of 65 FPS at 4K Medium is higher than the average of 63 FPS at 4K High, highlighting the importance of preset selection for maintaining smooth performance. Across all resolutions, the Medium preset consistently provides the most stable experience, with recorded minimums that are 73-85% of the average, ensuring no major framerate hitches.